Award Winner Updates

Failure to transfer Eaten Fish to Australia will lead to another death on Manus Island

“It is with profound alarm and sadness that we learn our friend and colleague, winner of last year’s Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award Eaten Fish, currently held in an Australian refugee rendition camp in Papua New Guinea has decided to undertake a hunger strike. He is a man who has given up hope, cannot struggle any longer, cannot face the future that is being forced on him, and would rather die than submit to the indignities of further inhuman treatment.” – Dr Robert Russell, Executive Director, CRNI

From our colleagues at the Save Eaten Fish campaign:

Eaten Fish has been on a hunger strike for six days and last weighed in at 48 kilos. It has been well documented in the press that Eaten Fish suffers from debilitating mental health issues. He has also been the victim of sexual assault, chronic sexual harassment and abuse within Australia’s immigration prison camp on Manus Island for the past three and a half years.

Due to his extremely fragile mental health and ongoing sexual harassment Eaten Fish has been held in the Special Supported Accommodation compound [also referred to as VSRA] for the past eight months.

In a document from PNG Immigration and Citizenship Service Authority dated 29th of January 2017, it is stated that the Australian Border Force told Eaten Fish that his allegations of sexual assault and abuse have not been substantiated and that he will be removed from the VSRA i.e. returned to the general population of the camp where the sexual assaults took place. Worryingly it also states that ABF will not negotiate with Eaten Fish on any grounds. It is this that has forced Mr Fish’s actions.

In an urgent letter to ABF Chief Medical Officer Dr John Brayley dated 2nd February 2017, Dr Sue Ditchfield writes: “Bizarrely he [Eaten Fish] was expected to prove the assaults to the satisfaction of PNG authorities. He was unwilling to identify his assailants because of his fear of retribution and of course any assaults take place well away from the compound guards.” Furthermore those authorities to whom Eaten Fish was obligated to prove the assaults took place were the same parties who had assaulted him late in 2016.

In a letter to CMO Brayley Janet Galbraith writes: “At the beginning of the hunger strike he [Eaten Fish] only weighed 53 kilos and he has already lost a substantial amount of weight. He reports to me today that he is shaky, weak, has a lot of body pain, no longer feels hunger, is losing his memory and his heart is beating fast. He says he can no longer shower.”

“I cannot suffer anymore. I know now that I will have to die because I cannot suffer anymore,” Mr Fish told Ms Galbraith.

When asked by authorities within the prison camp what he wished to accomplish through his hunger strike Mr Fish said: “Something happens with hunger strike and I think you know what that is. I will die and this will all finish.”

The Australian government has been petitioned many times both from within Australia and internationally asking that Eaten Fish be brought to Australia for medical treatment.

Dr Ditchfield says, “I urge you to be pro-active in transferring this critically ill young man to Australia. I have no doubt that failure to do this will lead to yet another death of an asylum seeker on Manus Island”.

If you can be of any assistance in the emergency effort to release Eaten Fish, please contact his advocate Janet Galbraith:

+61 448 370 918 / galbraithjanet3@gmail.com

Full statement from CRNI’s Executive Director reads:

It is with profound alarm and sadness that I and all of us at Cartoonists Rights Network International learn that our friend and colleague, cartoonist Eaten Fish, currently held in an Australian refugee rendition camp in Papua New Guinea has decided to undertake a hunger strike. It is my personal conviction that it is not really to protest anything. He is a man who has given up hope, cannot struggle any longer, cannot face the future that is being forced on him, and would rather die than submit to the indignities of further inhuman treatment. As of this writing his strike is in its sixth day and he is presenting grave and critical symptoms of starvation. While we urgently hope and pray that he will end his fast and find some reserve of hope and the will to fight, we also understand that a convergence of bad decisions and inhuman policies among powerful and intractable institutions all conspire against him. He is a fragile, beautiful soul in the path of a grinding militancy of cowards.

If one understands all of the circumstances involved one would have to conclude that this is state-mandated ‘Murder by Suicide’. The governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea Have Not Remembered. With President Trump’s latest objection and apparent withdrawal of any hope of repatriating some of the inmates of this camp to the United States our friend’s fate seems to be sealed.

When the story is finally told about the inmates at Manus Island and the other detention centers in the Pacific and the inhuman heartlessness which drives the treatment of these refugees I predict that a number of ambitious politicians will pay a heavy price.

We have been watching in slow motion as governments ignore their own histories and fail the test of courage required by states that claim to be democratic.

Cartoonist Rights Network International joins with dozens of other institutions and hundreds if not thousands of people around the world in demanding that Prime Minister Turnbull of Australia take immediate and personal responsibility for what is happening at the rendition camps on Manus and Nauru.

Cumhuriyet continues to report the news in Erdoğan’s Turkey, despite his regime’s attempts to shut them down; multiple members of staff including their resident political cartoonist Musa Kart have been in jail for nearly 100 days.

For weeks Musa’s spot on the front page was left blank but recently cartoons by others from around the world have appeared in the paper, expressing solidarity with Musa in particular and concern about the conditions for Turkish press and media workers in general.

We commend Cumhuriyet’s efforts in the face of great adversity and for using cartoons to send the message to both their readers, political opponents and government that the wider world is still watching.

CRNI has verified the letter’s authenticity and while the English translation is inexact the meaning is clear. Just as he did before his arrest in November last year, Musa expresses incredulity that his work can cause such consternation among those in authority in Turkey that his imprisonment is warranted.

As we approach his 100th day in custody CRNI call again for his immediate release along with all his colleagues in the press and media.

Following her appearance at the US Republican Party’s policy retreat in Philadelphia and tête-à-tête with Donald Trump at the White House UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s next stop is a meeting with Turkey’s president Recep Erdoğan.

“The [Turkish] government is now abusing the state of emergency to restrict the right to freedom of expression and media freedom severely, and to stifle criticism and limit the diversity of views, perspectives and opinions available in the public sphere within Turkey. Restrictions on the media are not a new phenomenon in Turkey, but the breadth and scope of the crackdown on media freedom has intensified dramatically in response to the failed coup, with measures of an unprecedented scale now being justified on the grounds of ensuring stability.”

These sentiments were echoed in the joint statement issued by CRNI, Cartooning for Peace and Cartoon Movement follow the arrest of multiple members of staff from Cumhuriyet newspaper, including past Courage in Editorial Cartooning award-winner Musa Kart.

We note that a “delegation from PEN International is currently visiting Turkey on a mission to assess the current situation and raise our concerns about the ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression” and CRNI wish them every success in their mission.

Today, 17 dec 2016, I was arrested again by the police during my fund-raising program with the fans. The purpose of this fund-raising is to recover the loss that I had with my previous exhibition where twenty (20) of my paintings were confiscated by the police and taken into their custody, causing losses of estimated USD10,000.00.
Today the police also confiscated more than 1,000 books which involved twelve (12) titles, causing another losses of estimated USD10,000.00. Two of my assistants were arrested together with two fans. We were taken to the police station and investigated under Section 124 of the Penal Code for being detrimental to parliamentary democracy, carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
I was questioned for almost 6 hours and released under bail at midnight. I would have to report back to the police station on the 30 Dec 2016.
According to the police, they will apply a law to ban all my books.
This is my second arrest within three (3) weeks. On 25th Nov 2016, I was arrested under the Sedition Act.
This adds up to the long list of harrassments and intimidation by the Malaysian government to me.
The pattern is directly proportionate to the increased level of corruption and injustices in Malaysia. Corrupt government fears cartoons.
I would like to point out my stand: talent is not a gift, but a responsibility. It is my responsibility as a cartoonist to expose corruption and injustices. Do I fear jail? Yes, but responsibility is bigger that fear. You can ban my books, you can ban my cartoons, but you cannot ban my mind. I will keep drawing until the last drop of my ink.

The police comment about a blanket ban on all books is of particular and grave concern and taken together with the incidents mentioned above and detailed below it seems clear that the Malaysian state is now intent upon the destruction of Zunar’s career.

Malaysian cartoonist Zunar’s Twitter feed confirms that he was placed under arrest during a public event today in Kuala Lumpur.

Zunar is contesting legal battles on multiple fronts and had been in the midst of a fund-raising Saturday afternoon tea party with supporters, hence the additional seizure of books worth about $6.5k, a clear attempt to deny him income and in itself a well-worn tactic employed against him by agents of the state over the last decade.

As we have reported of late, Zunar is currently unable to leave Malaysia, was placed under police arrest at the end of November after an exhibition in Penang was disrupted by pro-government protestors and he is preparing for a court appearance to challenge the Sedition Act, the ultimate weapon of the Malaysian government which is seeking to imprison him for the rest of his natural life.

Zunar’s recent woes precipitated a statement of solidarity from several of the world’s leading editorial cartoonists; this latest instance of harassment will only redouble the outrage felt by his colleagues. One again CRNI calls for his immediate release and safety in which to continue speaking truth to power.